“Alas, few of us were fortunate enough to witness this production. Friday night, the Ballet announced that all further performances of this “Midsummer” run have been canceled because city officials ordered that the Opera House and other venues be closed as a precaution amid the coronavirus crisis. If I do get the virus (not to suggest there were suspicions of contagion at Friday’s engagement), I’d almost say the performance I saw would be worth it.” – San Francisco Chronicle
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Nationalist Governments Are Targeting Museums To Change Their Narratives
In Poland and other countries ruled by nationalist governments, far-right political parties are increasingly attempting to twist history to fit into their own narratives. And they’re going after cultural and educational institutions to do it. When the past doesn’t fit these governments’ political purposes, it has no place being remembered. – HuffPost
Iconic Sydney Opera House Closes For Two Years
As the building approaches its 50th birthday, in 2023, the interventions are necessary. While its architect, Jorn Utzon, is now widely recognized as a visionary and his creation is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the hall’s construction was troubled, and certain problems have never been solved. Years of testing have produced a new plan for the concert hall’s acoustics — as well as for more basic matters. – The New York Times
France’s Culture Minister Falls To Coronavirus
The culture minister was supposed to meet Tuesday with representatives from the cinema and performing arts industries to assess the impact of new measures taken to counter the Covid-19 epidemic, following Sunday’s decision to ban any public gathering of more than 1,000 people. In France, more than 300 concert halls and theaters, including the Opera House, the new Philharmonie de Paris or Le Zénith indoor arena, have 1,000-plus seats. The Salon du Livre, France’s annual showcase event for publishers, which was expecting 160,000 visitors from 20 to 23 March, had already been cancelled along with a rock and roll festival planned a week before on the French-Swiss border. – The Art Newspaper
Our Devices Are Getting Smarter – But That Also Makes Them Obsolete Sooner
In the span of a single decade, we basically let a computer-centric mindset around planned obsolescence threaten to ruin the long-term usability of entire categories of products unnecessarily. – Vice
A Takeover, And A Crisis, At France’s Best-Known Journal Of Filmmaking
Cahiers du Cinéma, which launched the French New Wave and gave the world the concept of the auteur, was purchased last month by a consortium that includes some of France’s top movie producers. The new owners, hoping to make the studious, and studiously independent, Cahiers more “chic” and “central,” want to invite directors to write for it and to launch a partnership with the Cannes Festival. The entire editorial staff has resigned. – The New Yorker
Tate Museums Pledge To Cut Resource Use, Cut Carbon
Tate—a network of four museums including Tate Modern, which ranked as Britain’s top tourist attraction, with 5.9 million visitors in 2018—announced it would cut its carbon footprint by at least 10 percent by 2023. “Large public buildings, attracting millions of visitors from the U.K. and overseas, require energy,” reads a declaration issued in July, which saw the highest-ever temperature recorded in the U.K. and record-setting heat across Europe. “We see caring for and sharing a national art collection as a public good, but it also consumes resources. . . . That’s why we pledge to make our long-term commitment ambitious in scope. We will interrogate our systems, our values, and our programs, and look for ways to become more adaptive and responsible.” – ARTnews
Conductor And Composer Anton Coppola, 102
“[He] appeared in the children’s chorus for the 1926 American premiere of Puccini’s uncompleted Turandot, conducted his own ending to the work some nine decades later, and in between had one of the longest careers as a maestro in modern times” — including founding a company (Opera Tampa) and conducting the premieres of several noted American operas, among them his own Sacco and Vanzetti. (And yes, he is part of the moviemaking family.) – The New York Times
Coachella And Stagecoach Festivals Trying To Reschedule To October
Postponing the massive festival series until October is a huge endeavor involving hundreds of artists and their representatives, as well as hundreds of contractors and vendors and tens of thousands of employees. Artists are frequenting touring during the fall months and while organizers aren’t likely to get all the performers to agree to move, sources say that if enough of the big headline acts then the festival can be moved. – Billboard
Theatre Critics Should Stop Cooperating With Producers’ No-Review Requests
Jeremy Gerard: “I’m all for producers and the sometimes preposterous lengths they will go to in order to promote and protect their shows. That’s their job. But I’ve often wondered why we, the critics, so willingly go along with their manipulations. Especially when they interfere with the, well let’s call it the journalism part of our job — reporting to our readers and giving context to the cultural news of the day.” – Broadway News